Vejmelka Shuts Out Sabres, Coyotes Blank Opponent for Second Straight Night

Mullett Magic struck again, and this time it came with a hearty dose of “Veggie.”

Clayton Keller and Liam O’Brien scored, Karel Vejmelka made 28 saves to earn his first shutout of the year, and the Arizona Coyotes blanked their second straight opponent with a 2-0 win over the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday.

Connor Ingram shut out the San Jose Sharks on Friday night, marking the first time since 1997 that the Coyotes have pitched shutouts on back-to-back nights. The game marked Vejmelka’s first win since Oct. 21, and “Veggie” was dialed in from the very beginning.

“It’s a great feeling,” Vejmelka said. “I really enjoyed playing against a tough opponent, and I really enjoyed this game. My teammates played great defensively, and we did a really good job in front of the net.”

Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 20 saves for the Sabres, who lost for the second time in three games. The Sabres won the first meeting between the two teams 5-2, and Saturday’s game was the final time this season Arizona and Buffalo will square off.

“I think we played hard defensively,” head coach André Tourigny said. “We had the last four minutes of the first and the second period where we mismanaged the puck, but other than that I liked the way we played with pace without the puck. We stripped the puck. We were hard on our pressure. I think we did a lot of good things in that sense.”

Much like Friday’s game against the Sharks, Arizona and Buffalo played to a scoreless tie for more than half the game. That changed at 15:12 of the second period, when Alex Kerfoot forced a turnover from Luukkonen behind the net before finding Keller in front, who fired the puck into the open net.

Kerfoot played on the wing with Keller and Nick Schmaltz on Saturday, and Tourigny has been changing up the combinations since Barrett Hayton suffered an injury on Nov. 16. The line generated nine of the Coyotes’ 22 shots on Saturday, and the 29-year-old Kerfoot has impressed all season with his versatility up-and-down the lineup.

“He does it all,”  Tourigny said. “He’s really, really smart. He understands the game. He has a good understanding of what makes a team successful, or not. It goes way above and beyond what he brings on the ice, though, because he brings a lot off the ice. 

“He’s a real pro, a real gentleman, a real good guy, loves his teammates, brings a lot of leadership, and he does it out on the ice, too.”

Keller and Schmaltz have played with Travis Boyd, Logan Cooley, Jason Zucker, and Kerfoot on their line since Hayton’s injury, and Keller said they continue to adjust their style of play while Hayton continues to recover.

On Saturday, those changes clicked.

“We’ve had to get to the inside a little bit more,” Keller said. “Having a guy inside is huge, and those are struggles that you’re going to have, and ultimately that’s what’s going to make you a better player down the road. You go through those stretches is when you really learn about yourself and your game, is those tough stretches, not when everything’s going your way, and going in.”

Vejmelka took a similar lesson from his recent stretch of games, and said he has drawn strength through the process as he looked to get back into the win column.

“It was tough for me, especially mentally, but I just tried to be positive and stay sharp,” he said. “It wasn’t easy, but I think I made another step, and it’s part of the game. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, but I want to win every game.”

Keller had a premonition of that performance prior to Saturday’s game.

“He was awesome, and a bunch of us talked about it in the last practice we had,” Keller said. “He was super dialed in and making a bunch of stops. In the back of my head, I was like, ‘the next game he plays, I think he’s going to play well,’ and it’s great to see that. 

“He’s such a great guy and deserves all of the success that he’s had.”

O’Brien padded the lead with a breakaway goal at 9:36 of the third period, taking a pass from Cooley at center ice and racing in to backhand it past Luukkonen. Vejmelka shut the door from there, and the Coyotes went on to win their second straight game.

Arizona improved to 10-5-0 at home, are tied for the fifth-most home wins this season, and have every reason to be brimming with confidence following the recent play of both of its netminders.

“I think confidence is huge, and it’s a big win in a key moment for us, back-to-back games at home,” Tourigny said. “If you look, everyone in our division seems to win lately, so I think those games are really important if we want to stay in the fight.”

The Coyotes are back in action on Tuesday, closing out their three-game homestand against the Ottawa Senators. Puck drop is scheduled for 7 pm MST, and the game will be broadcast on the following networks:

WHERE TO WATCH:
• Antenna: 61.1 Phoenix, 9.2 Tucson
• Phoenix Cable: Cox 95
• Phoenix Satellite: DirecTV Channel 61, Dish Network Channel 61
• Bullhead City / Lake Havasu: Optimum channel 6
• Flagstaff: American Cable channel 4, Optimum Cable channel 6
• Maricopa: Orbitel channel 11
• Pinal County: Mediacom channel 13
• Prescott: Sparklight channel 61
• Sedona: Optimum Cable channel 6
• Show Low / Winslow Sparklight channel 61
• Tucson: Cox channel 85, Xfinity channel 1179, Orbitel channel 208

WHERE TO LISTEN:
• Radio: ESPN 620
• Stream: Arizona Coyotes App, NHL Mobile App